The Last Chance
by Angel of Music lover
Summary: James finally works up the nerve to be honest with Lily in light of the war brewing in the Wizarding World. He knows he's right and can only hope Lily agrees before it's too late for them. Oneshot. James/Lily


**A/N: I'd always wanted to give this pairing a try but never quite got around to it. I'm afraid that it's done so often that there's nothing new to say. I'll try anyway, though, because it seems like fun. :) And they're one of my favorite pairings in ****Harry Potter****. **

**James/Lily**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ****Harry Potter**

"What a rotten way to end our last year at Hogwarts," Sirius sighed, scanning through his Daily Prophet over breakfast. "There haven't been _any _attacks for weeks and now…"

"I know," Remus agreed, reading over Sirius's shoulder. "Twenty Muggles and three Wizards killed after a group of Death Eater's attacked a shopping mall in London. The Muggles think it was one of their own terrorists but everyone knows it was Him."

"Not to mention all of the other peculiar deaths," Sirius snapped, visibly angered by this upsurge of violence. Possibly because he knew that his own family was probably to blame. "Whole families found dead of heart attacks, breath failure, whatever else the Ministry can work up to explain them away to the Muggles."

James sat silently and merely stared into his pumpkin juice. He certainly didn't want to listen to the conversation around him, for now it affected him too closely. He'd received a letter from his parents the day before saying that they were going to go into hiding for a while. His mother explained that they were going to move to her sister's home until things settled down in the Potters' area. Their tone had clearly been panicked and his mother, speaking for his father as well, urged James to stay in school and not to wander around unprotected. It frightened him more than he would ever admit.

"What is the bloody Ministry doing about it?" Sirius wondered darkly, neither friend noticing James' sullen mood. They both knew about the letter and had decided to give him his space. Asking him questions would only make things worse for James. "Probably as little as possible, the spineless gits. Probably think it's just a phase and can be handled quietly."

Remus shrugged and turned his attention back to the porridge before him. His face had grown pale and it was clear that he didn't want to talk about this particular subject any more than James did.

"And where the bloody hell is Peter?" Sirius snapped, not seeming to mind that his two companions were strained and silent. "I haven't seen him since I got him to finish my Potions essay for me last night in the Common Room." Another shrug from Remus,

"He's probably about," James answered, speaking for the first time since sitting down to breakfast. "I wouldn't worry about it." The others nodded half-heartedly in agreement. Peter had been missing quite often these days, doing things on his own as Peter said. Which was odd considering that for the last six years at Hogwarts he had been inseparable from the Marauders, hardly ever going missing even though Sirius often spoke of a desire for this to happen.

Just then, as the group ran out of things to talk about, Lily Evans entered the Great Hall with a couple of her girlfriends. The girls were in deep conversation and didn't notice when they selected a seat next to the Marauders. James himself didn't even seem to care that they were nearby, something very out of character for him because of his very outspoken affection for Lily herself.

"Oi, mate," Sirius whispered across the table to James. "Did you realize that you're practically two arm lengths away from Evans?"

James looked over and saw it to be true. He stared at Lily, the beautiful redhead of his dreams since he was 15, for a moment before turning back to Sirius. "Yeah. Be cool about it."

Sirius looked rather surprised, and was clearly unconvinced of James' nonchalant attitude, but decided not to send a couple of catcalls in the girls' direction. It would only embarrass James and probably chase Lily away. She always hated the Marauders' antics, particularly James' for reasons unknown to anyone but herself.

"I hope my parents are all right," Remus suddenly spoke aloud. "I haven't heard from them in quite a while."

"I'm sure they're fine," Sirius assured his friend, shrugging for emphasis. "It's not like you lot wrote regularly to begin with. You know, with all the family drama." Remus considered this and finally was convinced that this must be the reasoning behind their silence. He usually only received a letter or two a year anyway, if he was fortunate.

During this exchange, James returned to being unusually quiet. Only, instead of sitting in a pensive silence, James seemed to be concentrating very hard about something. Sirius and Remus almost would have thought James was plotting a prank. They knew better. The group hadn't played a prank in months because they hadn't been in the mood.

"Ready to go, mate?" Sirius asked and stood with Remus. Both of them had finished their breakfast, even Sirius finished his abnormally large amount, while James had barely touched his.

"It's a Saturday," Remus added, "One of the last ones we have. We could go do something together. Maybe this school could use a good prank." Sirius snorted in surprise. He hadn't known Remus to actually volunteer a prank, although he had always been more than willing to carry one out.

James also stood with the two friends but shook his head. "I'll catch up with you guys in a bit. There's something I've got to do but then I'll probably be free the rest of the day."

The three left the Great Hall together and then they split off. Sirius and Remus went to return to their Common Room while James hung about the entrance as if waiting for someone to come out of it.

Before he left, however, James heard Remus mutter, "Good luck." James couldn't help but smile. Remus was always so intuitive. He was probably explaining his assumption to Sirius now, as James could see him speaking rapidly to his friend and Sirius' expression seem to become more and more enlightened.

James turned and found a spot on a wall to lean against. From there, he merely waited patiently.

Nearly ten minutes after the boys had left, the girls came out of the Great Hall.

"They didn't even _say_ anything…" one of them began to say before cutting off her words. She had spotted James.

James jumped up from his seat on the floor and approached the group of girls. From there, he looked politely at Lily and asked if she would accompany him to the Library. He had a question about Charms and knew that she would be able to help him. Lily thought she heard, however, a tone of desperation in his tone. Reluctantly, she left her friends to walk down the hallway with him with a promise to meet up with them later.

"Where exactly are we going?" she asked, becoming slightly irritated when the trip seemed to not be going in a particular direction. "Maybe you should ask me your question _now_ to see if I can help you or not."

"How are you?" James asked, ignoring Lily's request. She was clearly taken aback by his sudden interest and change of subject.

"I'm okay," she answered on a reflex.

"I was just curious," James explained. "You see, those articles in the paper today were pretty brutal. A lot of Muggles died. If I was bothered by them I thought you might have taken it especially hard."

Lily fell into a stunned silence. It was true, the stories in the paper had made her sick. Considering that she herself was a Muggle, Lily could hardly stand the stories of their execution by Pureblood Death Eaters. She couldn't fault James for asking about how she was feeling after reading them.

"Oh, well. Yeah. Um." Lily scrutinized him before asking a question of her own. "Did you get me alone so you could ask me that?"

James smiled lopsidedly at her. "Sort of. It wasn't my only reason." He didn't add anything to this statement, forcing Lily to come up with her own topic of conversation.

"You seemed quiet at breakfast," Lily observed. She looked merely curious now, allowing herself to feel concern for James. She'd never hated him, not really, but had merely been annoyed by him all these years. Occasionally, he had hurt her, but never in an irreparable way. She could sense that something was wrong and felt it appropriate to at least inquire as to what. "We were sitting right next to you, you know."

"Yeah, I've just been worrying lately," was all that James allowed. He hadn't singled her out to talk about his parents or the war that was brewing. At least, he hadn't meant to talk about the war _directly_. "Lily, I know you don't believe me when I try to—"

"Are you going to ask me out _again_?" Lily asked, anger slowly replacing her prior sympathy. "James, if I've told you once I've told you a million times—"

"Just, listen to me," James insisted. He stopped walking and instead turned to lean against a wall in the hallway. "You told me once that you might be able to care about me."

Lily flushed at the memory. She'd admitted it, yes, after a considerable amount of butter beer and a lapse of judgment. But the two had never talked about it again. She'd thought it had been for the best. The two would have been a poor match and she knew it. While her feelings had lingered at a much, much friendlier level than before, she hadn't prepared to take him up on his offers of dates. Part of this was stubbornness and she knew it but didn't quite have the will to do anything about it.

"What about it?" she asked crossly. "I told you why that wouldn't matter."

"Lily," James said in a clearly frustrated tone. "Don't you realize what's happening? People are dying all the time. Even _students _are dying all the time because of what this Voldemort guy is doing. I _know_ you Lily. You're too stubborn to actually admit that you were wrong and I don't want that to be the only reason that—"

James then took a breath and allowed himself to mellow. It was clear that his intense feelings were frightening Lily because her eyes widened with each word and with her own realizations.

"Look, just, think of it this way. Is there another bloke that you could see yourself dating other than me?" James asked earnestly. "If there is than I'll leave you alone. I swear."

Lily took some time to contemplate the boy that was before her now. She then did as he asked after judging him to be entirely serious with this proposition. Even though she thought it was a waste of time, because she could think of many boys all at once.

However, when she tried to visualize herself with someone other than James Potter a funny thing happened. Somehow, the boy she would grasp at desperately would end up having impossibly messy black hair or a lopsided grin or round glasses. None of these boys had any of these traits besides James Potter. She tried thinking of some of her previous boyfriends but could not see any of their romances rekindling or ending up anywhere but broken again. The terrible (or, perhaps, wonderful) realization was slowly sinking into the pit of her stomach.

The silence that stretched between them seemed to speak for itself. James looked at Lily with a bursting mix of both growing happiness and smugness. He was right, Lily realized. Damn him for being right.

"You can't do it, can you?" James finally asked. "Just like I can't imagine being with anyone but you, Lily. You're the only one."

Before, Lily probably would have greatly doubted this. Sentiment. Before, James used to say things like this when trying to get her on a date but then could be seen snogging some Ravenclaw in a closet. Lily was never surprised. But now, Lily could feel the sincerity in his voice. Something about this time finally convinced her that he meant it.

"I just… I don't want anything to happen without you knowing that I love you," James admitted, seeming to surprise himself. He hadn't meant to take it quite this far but he had anyway. "That's all this was. Lily, I think I've always loved you. I needed you to know that."

James hesitated and looked at her with that earnest expression he had been wearing all morning. Lily didn't exactly look away from him. She was too stunned by this sudden declaration and her own change of heart. Or her _realization_ of her heart, anyway. She was shocked, to say the least.

Then, James was kissing her and Lily thought it felt right. It wasn't their first kiss, James had often tried to jump on her throughout the years, jokingly or not, but it felt like it _should_ be. All that existed as Lily and James and Lily found that she didn't want to pull away from him or do anything to make it stop. For once, she didn't want to slap him or shout or storm away in a huff. James sensed this change as well, because he pulled out of the kiss in surprise. Part of him truly hadn't expected her to let him kiss her.

He stared down at her before finally breaking into a huge, joyful grin. "I knew it!" James nearly shouted. "I knew it, Lily!" The somberness that had been surrounding him briefly broke at the idea that Lily Evans might love him too.

Lily blushed and shook her head wearily. Some things would never change. However, she couldn't bring herself to be sarcastic. She was too happy. "Well, I'm glad _someone_ knew it." Her cheeks were flushed and aching from smiling so much.

If possible, James' excitement seemed to escalate to even higher heights. "Be my girl," James asked, his happiness gleaming off of him in waves. "Please, Lily, be my girl." His hands were running through his already mussed hair, pushing his glasses up even if they hadn't slipped down, touching her shoulder eagerly, and back in his hair in a strange cycle.

"Of course," Lily smiled, grabbing James' hands to keep them still. She hesitated, gnawing on the inside of her lip anxiously. "I'm going to get a lot of hell because of it with my girlfriends, but I _want_ to be your girl." She wanted to add that she would _always_ be his girl but thought that this might be too forward. She could never at the same level as James was in this way. She had to take this one step at a time.

"Excellent," James said and then kissed Lily again. With his kiss, Lily could feel the emotions she'd let take a backseat come into the front and she could hardly breathe. This time she kissed him back, feeling very accomplished when James seemed to have another burst of happiness just from this small action on her part. She never realized how much he had cared about her acceptance.

"Let's go to the Gryffindor Common Room," James suddenly suggested, pulling on Lily's elbow gently to convince her.

"Why?" Lily asked, clearly bemused. If he'd wanted some place to be alone, they had the Head Boy and Girl Common Room to themselves. Why would he want to make this public so soon?

"I told the Marauders that I would spend the day with them. I need to tell them that I'm going to be preoccupied with someone else instead," he explained, still grinning goofily.

Lily laughed. "Good idea. I have my own plans to break." It was her turn to kiss James, taking him by surprise once again. "You were right. About everything."

James smirked somewhat smugly. "Well, of course I was. Did you ever doubt me?" Lily could only laugh in response. That was the James she knew and loved. Not the serious, somber man that had been before her mere moments ago.

The two walked quickly down the corridor, hand-in-hand, to face whatever future was ahead of them together. United at last and for many years beyond.

**A/N: Please review**


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